Fans talk excitement after Czechia men’s national team community training session
It was damp, cloudy and humid Saturday morning, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell by looking at the smiles on the faces of fans entering Mansfield Stadium for Czechia’s community training event.
The event was the first ever held at the newly built stadium and drew hundreds of people to watch Team Czechia, including Hannah Najzroba, a Czech native who lives in Dallas and came to the event with her family despite them being self acknowledged hockey fans.
“It actually took us an hour and a half to get here, but hey, this doesn’t happen every day. So, definitely excited to be here and support team Czech,” said Najzroba. “We are [a] hockey family, so super familiar with sport events for the Czechs, like everybody plays soccer, but they haven’t really had any encounters with the Czech national team, so super excited to have them here.”
Najzroba, who has lived in Dallas for 11 years, talked about the excitement of seeing her home country’s team in person for the first time.
“Oh my gosh, it’s super exciting to see how Mansfield and the whole US is living with the FIFA fever,” said Najzroba.
The event not only drew Czech natives, but also people like Maria Wyatt, who lives a couple of minutes away from the stadium. She and her daughter, Natalie, came decked in Czech regalia to get into the spirit. Natalie Wyatt talked about the energy the World Cup was bringing to Dallas-Fort Worth alongside her friends Debbie Hinds and Peyton Morris.
“I’ve played soccer for about 20 years, and I’ve recently retired, because at this point everything hurts, and so it’s just really exciting to see new things in soccer, because it used to not be as popular, and so now everybody’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re gonna go see soccer,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, exactly, let’s go see soccer, because it’s really fun to watch, especially people who are good at it,’” said Wyatt.
Maria Wyatt talked about watching the stadium get built and said she loves the way the stadium looks and can’t believe it’s holding a World Cup event.
“I actually live in the neighborhood, about five minutes away, so we’ve been seeing it being built all this time, and we were excited to see what’s new in our neighborhood, what’s new in Mansfield,” said Wyatt.
Hinds talked about the impact of having professional soccer in Mansfield and what it means to the residents.
“That was exciting to bring this type of professionalism to Mansfield, because before we’ve had to drive an hour, hour and a half to see, you know, professional level, so it’s exciting they built this in our backyard,” said Hinds. “I saw that the women’s national team is coming too. I’m very excited, my child saw the women’s national team [when she was younger] and watching them grow up..and now to see it in our backyard is so cool.”
Morris, a former soccer player, said, “I think it’s gonna do a lot for our youth, because you know it’s going to bring more popularity to the youth groups and get more kids interested in soccer at a lower level, because they’re getting to watch this now.”
One of those players the next generation had the opportunity to watch was Jaroslav Zelený from the Czech national team. He talked about his first impression of Dallas-Fort Worth fans and the weather as the team prepares for its first World Cup since 2006.
“I’m surprised everyone’s so polite and kind, so hopefully it stays like this the whole World Cup,” said Zelený. “Well, the weather surprised me, because of humidity, so that was biggest shock for me, but at least today is cloudy, so it’s a little bit easier, but yeah, the weather is, I think, the worst for us, but otherwise everything else is really nice.”
Dallas Stars center Radek Faksa, a Czech native, showed up to support his countrymen and talked about his excitement to watch his national team play and what he remembers about the 2006 team.
“I remember 2006 in Germany, was first time for Czech Republic to qualify for a World Cup, so was huge thing, and especially for me, it was like right across the border. Czech is the neighbor with Germany, so so many friends travel to Germany, I remember I wish to go for some games, and now I have chance to see Czech play in Atlanta, so I’m really looking forward to being there and see a World Cup game,” said Faksa.
Czechia will play its first game of the World Cup against South Korea on June 11 at 9 p.m.
